India’s beef and buffalo consumption is rising–along with that of every other kind of meat–as a legal battle over Maharashtra’s beef prohibition unfolds in the Bombay High Court and the state government mulls new bans on the slaughter of other animals.
Consumption of beef/buffalo meat grew by 14% in urban and 35% in rural India between 2004-05 and 2011-12, according to National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data analysed by IndiaSpend. Although poultry is the meat of choice, the consumption of other meats is also growing.
Fish is the most consumed meat in India followed by chicken. The monthly per capita consumption of fish is up by 22% in urban
India and 32% in rural India.
However consumption of chicken has
registered a greater surge of 181% in urban
and 256% in rural India from 2004-05 to
2011-12.
Rising consumption may not deter the
Bharatiya Janata Party, now in power in 11 states and Delhi.
“Cow slaughter cannot be allowed in this country,” Home
Minister Rajnath Singh said recently, “We will use all our
might to ban it.”
Rising incomes in India are related to the rising consumption
of meat, as the graph below explains.
Per capita income rose 55% over the
same period, 2005-06 to 2010-11, that
meat consumption rose in rural and urban
India.
Growing incomes across India have led
to a fall in consumption in coarse grain and
a rise in consumption of protein and fat,
although India greatly lags China and the
US, as this study shows. Despite the rising
preference for non-vegetarian food, both
in urban and rural India, the Maharashtra
government on April 6, 2015, told
the Bombay High Court that it
would now consider a ban on
other meat in addition to beef.
When Maharashtra advocate
general Sunil Manohar told Justices
V.M. Kanade and A. R. Joshi
that the beef ban, under the new
Maharashtra Animal Preservation
(Amendment) Act, was primarily
aimed at preventing cruelty to animals,
Justice Kanade asked:
“What about other animals like
(sic) goat?”
Manohar replied: “This is just
the beginning. We may consider
banning slaughter of other animals.”
Justice Kanade joked: “This
may lead to a migration from (the)
state. Don’t ban fish though.”
Chicken is the most-consumed meat followed by
fish and mutton in the state of Maharashtra.
The monthly per
capita beef/buffalo meat
consumption has gone
up in both urban (45%)
and rural (41%) areas between
2004-05 and
2011-12. The monthly
per capita mutton consumption
in urban Maharashtra
has increased by
11% while it has registered
a decline of 53% in rural
regions of Maharashtra.
